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Thursday, September 30, 2010 – Daily News – 3B FEATURES Behcet’s info is plentiful DEAR DR. GOTT: My 46- year-old daughter has been diag- nosed with Behcet’s disease after several years and after seeing several doctors. She usually has outbreaks in her mouth twice a year, sometimes more often if she has a stressful situation occur. There don’t appear to Dr. Peter Gott be any doctors in the Memphis, Tenn., area who are familiar with this dis- ease. Is there a teaching hospital in the United States that specializes in, or is doing research on, the topic? DEAR READER: I wrote a rather extensive column regarding Behcet’s disease that can be reviewed by logging onto my website at www.AskDrGottMD.com . Go to the search bar, and type in Behcet’s disease to review the column. Beyond that, you can go online to the American Behcet’s Disease Associa- tion at www.behcets.com; the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at www.ninds.nih.gov; or numerous other sites for in-depth information. Beyond that, the National Institutes of Health is sponsoring a new study on Behcet’s and is looking for people with the dis- ease for their work. Education and patient awareness are vital so patients can know what to expect when diagnosed with a specific condition. DEAR DR. GOTT: How much vitamin D should I take? I hear everything from 400 IU to 10,000 IU. I’m currently taking 5,000 IU. Should I take it every other day? I’m a 59-year-old female. Please advise. DEAR READER: Vit- amin D is a fat-soluble vit- amin essential for the growth and development of teeth and bones and for the absorption of calcium and phosphorous from the intestines. Without suffi- cient vitamin D, bones can become thin, brittle and misshapen. It prevents softening of bones in chil- dren, a condition known as rickets. When com- bined with calcium, it helps protect older adults from osteoporosis. As research unfolds and theories are validated, it is thought to be linked to thyroid disorders, hyper- tension, stroke, diabetes, heart failure, colon, prostate and breast cancer, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, infection and other disor- ders. The average vitamin D intake of American adults is about 230 IU daily. Some researchers are rec- ommending that the dose be increased to between 1,500 and 2,000 IU daily, while others believe 5,000 is appropriate. According to the Office of Dietary Supplements, a division of the National Institutes of Health, people between infancy and 50 should take 200 IU; between 51 and 70, 400 IU; 71 and over, 600 IU. Research remains ongoing, and new studies were to have been completed in May 2010 and reported later this fall that may modify these recommendations. Vitamin D comes from three sources — supple- ments, exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet rays that penetrate the skin and foods such as fatty fish, fortified milk products, egg yolks and butter. It is said that 20 minutes in the sun at solar noon pro- vides 200 times more vit- amin D than one glass of milk. To provide related information, I am sending you a copy of my Health Report “Vitamins & Min- erals.” Other readers who would like a copy should send a self-addressed stamped No. 10 envelope and a $2 check or money order payable to Newslet- ter. Mail it to Newsletter, P.O. Box 167, Wickliffe, OH 44092-0167. Be sure to mention the title or print an order form off my website at www.AskDr- GottMD.com. Dr. Peter H. Gott is a retired physician and the author of several books, including “Live Longer, Live Better,” “Dr. Gott’s No Flour, No Sugar Diet” and “Dr. Gott’s No Flour, No Sugar Cookbook,” which are available at most bookstores or online. His website is www.AskDrGottMD.com Months after winning $1M in lottery, man wins $2M ST. LOUIS (AP) — The odds against winning $1 mil- lion in the Lottery: Astronomical. How about doing it twice? It happened to a man from Bonne Terre, Mo., Mis- souri Lottery officials said Tuesday. Ernest Pullen, 57, won $1 million with a ‘‘100 Million Dollar Blockbuster’’ Scratchers ticket in June. And this month, he won $2 million with a ‘‘Mega MONOPOLY’’ Scratchers ticket. Pullen, a retired military man who was working at the help desk for a telecommunications company before retiring after the first lottery win, said he considers him- self to be a ‘‘lucky guy.’’ You think? John Wells of the Missouri Lottery said the chances of winning $1 million in the ‘‘$100 Million Dollar Blockbuster’’ game are 1 in 2.28 million. The odds of winning $2 million in ‘‘Mega MONOPOLY’’ are about the same. The chances of winning both? Because they’re independent games, it is impossible to calculate the odds, Wells said. ‘‘But it’s a pretty amazing coincidence,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ve had players win big multiple prizes before, but this is the first person to ever win a second million-dol- lar prize in the history of the Missouri Lottery.’’ Pullen bought the most recent winning ticket on Sept. 17 at Miller’s Quick Shop in Bonne Terre, a community in the Old Lead Belt region of eastern Missouri, about 60 miles southwest of St. Louis. He opted to take the cash payment instead of the annuity for both wins. He received $700,000 for the June winner and will get about $1.3 million for the September winner — both before taxes. Pullen recalled a dream six years ago in which he won a lot of money. Even after the $1 million win in June, he didn’t feel like the dream was complete. He does now. ‘‘All the numbers I dreamed about, and all my lucky numbers, were on the card,’’ Pullen said. Philandering fellow fails at faithfulness year-old daughter and her husband, ‘‘Buddy,’’ Dear Annie: Our 25- are having marital problems. ‘‘Kristen’’ told me things weren’t right between them, and I recently found out Buddy has been cheat- ing. They have been married only a year. He’s on his sec- ond affair, although he says this woman is ‘‘just a friend.’’ He likes to ‘‘hang out’’ at the other woman’s house, and when Kristen said she wasn’t comfortable with that, he didn’t care and went anyway. Kristen found out that when she Annie’s Mailbox by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar was on a business trip, this woman stayed in their house. Buddy does- n’t seem to think there’s anything wrong with that. They want to work things out, and my daughter told him in order to do that he needs to drop all contact with this woman, but he refuses. He said he deleted her phone number from his cell, but Kristen checked and discovered that he simply listed her phone number under another name. Kristen asked him to see a mar- riage counselor with her, but he won’t go. He says they can work this out on their own. I told Kristen that if he won’t go, she should. What else can I tell her besides the obvious? — Our Monkey Dear Yours: Kristen should think long and hard about staying with someone who doesn’t under- stand or care about his obligations as a husband. A man who cheats twice within the first year of marriage is not like- ly to change his ways on his own. But you are right that your daughter can benefit from counseling with or without Buddy. We hope she will take your advice. Dear Annie: My hus- band and I are retired. ‘‘Freddie’’ is quite helpful around the house repairing things, but he has no male friends he can hang out with, so he spends most of his time watching TV. Whenever I try to start a conver- sation, he belittles me, makes fun of me and says I never accomplished anything, even though I worked a full-time job for decades while rais- ing four children. Everything has to go his way, and I must agree with whatever he says. Nothing I do is good enough. Freddie has a very short fuse, and all of our conversations seem to end with an argument. I’m always walking on eggshells. Of course, whenever we go out with my women friends, he is extremely attentive and pleasant to them. He even had the nerve to ask me which of my friends would be most suit- able for him. He likes to buy little things for my friends, yet pleads poverty when it’s time for my birth- day. I don’t think I can take any more. For my own sanity, it’s time for a change. What is your advice? — Fed Up Dear Fed Up: Some men, once they retire, become depressed and need to prove that they are still desirable and valued. Freddie flirts with your friends because their attention boosts his ego. Belittling you makes him feel superior. Try to get him active in organizations that will value his skills and experience. Check your local community cen- ter, church, YMCA, park district, hospitals and schools, and find out how Freddie can volunteer his ser- vices. Dear Annie: I have a suggestion for ‘‘On Strike’’ to help everyone in the family contribute to the work at a family gathering. My mother would write up vari- ous jobs on index cards, with tasks divided according to child and adult levels. When you arrived, you picked a card. It was a given: Every- body contributed in some shape or form, everyone enjoyed the event because it was a group effort, and we all showed appreciation for everyone else for doing their part. — Miss Those Big Family Gather- ings in Ohio Annie’s Mailbox is written by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar, longtime editors of the Ann Landers column. Please e-mail your questions to anniesmailboxcomcast.net, or write to: Annie’s Mailbox, c/o Creators Syndicate, 5777 W. Century Blvd., Ste. 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045. Student loans, groans Q: Our son graduated from college in 2008, and our daughter graduated this year. We had planned for them to pay off their federal student loans, and we would pay their Sallie Mae loans until they had good-enough jobs to pay both. Meanwhile, they only have low- paying jobs, and our financial cir- cumstances have changed. Can you help us find a planner who understands stu- dent loans and how to deal with them? A: Student loans are like quicksand -- much easier to get into than to get out. The problem of repaying student loans is getting more critical as the effects of the recession linger. The default rate on federal student loans is 7 percent for borrowers who entered repayment in 2008, up from 6.7 percent last year. It's unfortunate that even bankruptcy cannot lift the burden for graduates. The federal government will fol- low you for ultimate repay- ment of most of your stu- dent loans -- even eventual- ly taking some of your Social Security benefits. Private lenders must fol- low the same collection pro- cedures as unsecured credit card issuers, including a statute of limitations set by each state. However, private lenders also have a special protection in the bankruptcy courts as a result of the 2005 bankruptcy legislation, making it almost impossible to discharge private student loan debt through bankrupt- cy. Here's where to get help: • StudentLoanBorrow- erAssistance.org: the web- site of the National Con- sumer Law Center. Start here to find the most com- prehensive information about your rights, as well as contacts for legal advice. • Projectonstudentdebt.org: a site that tracks the public- policy issues and gives resources for borrowers. • Studentaid.ed.gov: The Department of Education site will explain deferral and other programs for federal student loans. • IBRinfo.org: For more on the federal Income Based Repayment plan below. Before you start your search for knowledge and help, here are some basics you need to know about dealing with repayment of both federal and private stu- dent loans. Terry Savage The Savage Truth on Money Federal stu- dent loans: Start- ing this year, all new federal stu- dent loans will be made directly through the gov- ernment. But in the past, they were made either directly from the government or through private lenders such as Sallie Mae. If you're hav- ing problems repaying your federal student loans, be aware that last year the go v ernment launched the Income Based Repayment plan to help graduated students manage their debt. Basical- ly, this program allows fed- eral student loan borrowers with outstanding debt that is more than they earn in a year to cap loan payments at a reasonable share of income. After 25 years of affordable payments, the balance is forgiven. (Or after 10 years, if you're working in a public-service job.) While federal student loans do offer some helpful repayment options, if you have a private loan (which may have been made by the same lender as your federal loan), you have few alterna- tives. Worse, there are many ways for private lenders to raise your interest rate, charge excessive fees and even declare you in default for unrelated issues that show up in your credit report. And if there was a co-signer on your private student loan, that person may be liable, even if the original borrower dies or is permanently disabled. Since there is no cap on interest rates for private stu- dent loans (although some specific loans may have caps), most are variable-rate loans. And if your credit rat- ing changes, you could find your rates skyrocketing, even during this period of low interest rates. There may be some hope in the future. A House Judi- ciary subcommittee just passed the Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Fairness Act (H.R. 5043). If passed by Congress, it would require that private student loans once again be treated like other consumer debt in bankruptcy, rather than like unpaid criminal fines! And the new Consumer Finan- cial Protection Bureau is expected to have an ombudsman dealing specifically with student loan issues. But in the meantime, the situation for pri- vate student loan borrowers is a tough one. The best answer is to study the loan docu- ments carefully. In cases of real need, you can try to contact the servicer and negotiate a lower payment or interest rate. If parents are on the line as co-signers (and most are), they can try to refi- nance their mortgage to a low fixed rate, pulling out any available cash to pay down these loans before the variable rates soar. We place higher educa- tion as a priority, but sad to say, when it comes time to pay for this impor- tant national resource, we leave our gradu- ates at the mercy of the toughest col- lection laws. It's one thing to default on a credit card debt. It's quite another to make it through college only to find your future destroyed by a debt that can't be repaid with a good- paying job. And that's The Savage Truth. Continued by Popular Demand! “PRIVATE PARTY” CLASSIFIED ADS FREE Through October 30! Sell your stuff! Boats/Autos too! Certain restrictions apply Call Daily News Classified For details! Ask about our discount rates for frequent Rental advertisers. run FREE online at www.redbluffdailynews.com through October D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY Classified 527-2151 “We like to move it, move it!” Your Classified ads Rental Real Estate Advertisers: